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Cox: Questions mount for Argos

HAMILTON—Instead of bashing craniums with enemy linemen, injured Adriano Belli was busy passing out tasty pastries to members of the media.

With a message.

“Be nice to our head coach and quarterback you (expletives deleted),” said Belli with a perfect deadpan delivery of both words and cannoli.

No worries there, big fella. You certainly couldn’t praise head coach Jim Barker of the Argonauts after his club lost a second straight game to their arch-rival Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Monday afternoon, nor would it have been possible to hurl too many compliments in the direction of quarterback Cleo Lemon after a three-interception day in a 28-13 defeat.

But you also can’t barbecue Barker or Lemon either, at least not yet. Halfway through last season it was obvious emotionless Bart Andrus wasn’t the coach to turn the Argos into a winning outfit, nor was worn-down Kerry Joseph the quarterback that would make anyone forget Damon Allen or Doug Flutie.

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By comparison, the jury is still out on both Barker and Lemon as a surprising 5-2 start to the season has hit a brick wall, the team dropping to 5-4.

At the halfway mark of the 2010 CFL season, the Argos are better than they were a year ago, and better than almost everyone thought they would be.

Fact is, they were down seven points with the ball in Hamilton territory early in the second half in the Labour Day classic, very much in the ball game despite a dreadful first half in which three trips inside the Hamilton 15-yard line had netted only three points.

But two incomplete passes and a lousy punt by Jamie Boreham gave the Cats the ball and viable field position. Kevin Glenn orchestrated an 81-yard march in nine plays that culminated in his 15th touchdown pass of the season, this time to Dave Stala, and from then on the Argos just seemed to do a whole lot of nothing.

Nothing good, nothing bad, just nothing.

The magic that was there for the first seven games has evaporated. Still, the third-place Argos sit only a game behind the first place Montreal Alouettes, get a full week of practice before a Braley Bowl encounter next weekend with two-win B.C. and will undoubtedly have a chance to find some more talent as NFL clubs finalize their rosters.

One player they’d love to sign would be homebrew defensive end Rickey Foley, a 12-sack man with the Lions last season cut by Seattle last week. Foley’s a big-play defender, and in two losses to the Cats, the Argos just haven’t had many momentum-altering moments.

Meanwhile, the mistakes that weren’t there in the early going have turned into an avalanche in the past six quarters. Whether it was James Robinson running the wrong pattern to create a Lemon interception or Jason Pottinger tackling a Tiger-Cat instead of blocking and thus negating a useful kickoff return, there were any number of culprits in double blue.

“The key is to stay together,” said Lemon, who was 31-43 for 334 yards on Monday but has only seven touchdown passes on the season in nine starts.

That’s harder than its sounds. Job insecurity can create tensions, as does losing. The post-Labour Day portion of the CFL season has been particularly ugly in recent years to the Argos, with the Don Matthews second half debacle of 2008 (0-8) followed up by last season’s 1-8 collapse under Andrus.

Before a jammed Ivor Wynne Stadium crowd that created a fabulous football atmosphere and really made you stop and wonder what it is about the joint that so desperately requires replacement, the Argos got off to a horrible start, essentially picking up where they’d left off in the previous loss to Hamilton.

Lemon crossed scrimmage before throwing the ball on the first play to kill a big gainer, Chad Lucas fumbled it away on the third play and two Argo penalties helped the Cats into the end zone for a quick 7-0 lead. The visitors had oodles of chances to score first half touchdowns but couldn’t, and then surrendered an ugly punt block for a Hamilton touchdown with only two seconds left before halftime.

“We’re not a good team yet,” said Barker. “But we’re working to get better.”

That’s fair. But the time for team development — and bribing the media with pastries — is coming to a close.

The Argos aren’t surprising anybody any longer, and now only good football will produce victories.

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